Joe -

I'm signing out in December, and if I relocate, it will likely be in early February. If I can get a job and a place to stay all lined up before I get out, I'll be taking about a month off to spend in Thailand with my wife's family. I'm hoping to eventually get a foreign service position with the State Dept and work overseas for a good part of my career, but since they aren't accepting applications right now for the position I want, I have a couple of options. If I can find a way to afford a full time semester and still support my wife and child, I'd like to finish up my MS degree, then start my new job without having to worry about school for a while. However, I will more than likely take either a contract position somewhere, or maybe even a GS position with the State Dept until the FS positions start to open up.

I had been planning for years to move to Southern California when I finish my military service, but the cost of living and housing down there is just ridiculous, and I really don't think I'm not in a strong enough financial situation to make it work right now. So I'm considering moving back to the Washington DC area (where I'm originally from) because if I do work for the State Dept, I will have to spend at least a year or so there doing my initial training.

However, for stateside living, I would really prefer to be someplace warm. Both of my parents are originally from Florida, and I still have relatives there. I spent a decent amount of time there as a kid and know I like the climate. There is also a State Dept office in Ft. Lauderdale, so I could look into landing a job there (even foreign service employees are required to spend part of their career working in the U.S.).

So to make a long story shorter, I have a lot of prospects, but few decisions have been made. Either way I'm signing out in December, so some major lifestyle changes are coming soon...